I have the same problem. It was printing fine last week, then got very light. I am using a third-party toner cartridge, but supposed to be 100% compatible with Dell. And it was. I replaced with another of the same. Dell told me to buy Dell, as others are not wired to be compatible. I missed the call from the other company's technical support person. I have no error messages showing, and toner shows as 100% full. I have tried the setting for non-Dell toner, but that doesn't work, either.I have the same problem. It was printing fine last week, then got very light. I am using a third-party toner cartridge, but supposed to be 100% compatible with Dell. And it was. I replaced with another of the same. Dell told me to buy Dell, as others are not wired to be compatible. I missed the call from the other company's technical support person. I have no error messages showing, and toner shows as 100% full. I have tried the setting for non-Dell toner, but that doesn't work, either.

AnonymousMar 18, 2014

yellow error light is on and nothing in the LCD... will not printyellow error light is on and nothing in the LCD... will not print

The only effect that the "non Dell toner" setting has is to raise the fuser temperature to the maximum. Since all toners are made up of ink and plastic, the fuser is what melts the fine plastic to the paper.

Dell toner is designed to melt at a lower temperature, however, since the non dell toners temperature value is unknow, this setting allows for that unknown.

In any case, neither of these things will cause lite, or faded print. In Fact, the toner cartridge for this model is actually nothing more then a toner storage device. Some cartridges contain the toner, the developer, and the drum. On the 5100 and the 5110 this is not the case.

The photo developers are located behind the imaging drum. you can see the 4 seperate developers, in the developer frame, when you remove the drum unit.

More then likely, if only the black is printing poorly, and the colors are printing ok, then the black photo developer is defective. This is a very messy job if you do not know what you are doing, and very involved.

You need to remove the top cover, the left side cover, the high voltage power supply, the supply tubes ( where the toner travels from the actual toner cartridges down to the developers ). Then once the tubes are removed, you have to remove the developer frame from the printer. Then you can get to the actual photo developer.

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Related Questions:

laser printers have a high freq high voltage wire that puts ions on the paper as it passes ,
have you cleaned this wire . it attracts dirt an inks like the paper it treats.
there is a wire cleaning tool in the machine usually.

you have to do is remove all 4 hoses, the single electrical connector at the top of the frame, and then the frame will pull lose from the printer. If you do remove the developer frame, make sure you clean the ROS glass, this is actually the printhead, located behind the frame when removed and as well as other parts. Reopen the black cartridge, set it well and lock it completely. There is a cheap under the toner, make sure that it is not corrupted, if it is, then you should remove it out and replace it with old toner cartridge. If the problem still exists then you can check this web link :

If you actually had a bad toner cartridge, and the toner was not making its way down the toner tube to the developer, then you may be able to fix the issue by simply doing a developer cleaning on the black developer. What this actually does is force aggitator to move toner down the tube into the developer. You can activate this from the maintenance menu.

If this does not fix the issue, then more then likely the black developer unit itself is defective and needs to be replaced.

The setting for non dell toner only controls the fuser temperature, and will not cause you any print quality issues. Toner is actually made up of ink and plastic. The fuser melts the plastic to "fuse" the image to the paper. Dell toner is set to "fuse" at a specific temperature. when you use non Dell toners, the temperature required to fuse may be different, and when set to non dell toner setting, the fuser temperature is raised to the maximum to ensure the other toner fuses properly. The down side to this is that you will wear out the fuser sooner then it should.

As far as the print quality issue you are having, it is most likey caused by the imaging drum.

Regardless of the estimated life for the imaging drum as stated by the printer, this is just an estimate. Many things can and will cause the imaging drum need replacing. ( Just yesterday I replaced a black toner in a 3115 that was less then a month old... genuine Dell... with more then 75% expected usage left because it was defective).

On this printer, each of the 3 colors and the black are all independent of each other with the exception of the imaging drum. Even within the imaging drum, cyan and black are independent of magenta and yellow on the first stage of transfer. When you have deteriorated print quality that effects more then one color, the first step is to replace the imaging drum.

The Primary transfer, secondary transfer, and tertiary transfer of the image are ALL contained within the imaging drum.

The chances of having 3 or 4 bad Developers is very very slim. If your print quality issue was related to only ONE color, then I would say you had a bad developer unit ( the 4 items located behind the imaging drum when removed). These are far more difficult and expensive to change.

The BTR ( bios transfer roller ) is the only other item that "could" effect your print quality, however, based on the symptoms you discribed, I doubt it. Besides, if i am not mistaken, the imaging drum kit comes with a new btr anyway.

Although I am sure you may be disappointed with the fact the drum unit is failing while showing it still has life remaining, the solution to replace it should restore your unit to full operation. The unit is light sensative, and effected by physical age as well as the number of prints it has supplied.

Please evaluate the solution i have provided and, rate the solution appropriately to show your support.